You Asked for It, We Did It!

We know you're full of great ideas! So check out the Idea Board and add a new idea or vote for the one(s) you love.

• We adjusted chart colors to better differentiate between items. This makes comparisons much easier to see!

• We added a Maiden Name field to Contact records under "Other Information". Note: This was done in preparation for part of our sacrament solution. If you are not currently tracking maiden names and you'd like to, you can start using this field. If you are tracking maiden names in a custom field, you can keep using that field for your needs.

• Fixed an issue where the Default View field was being cleared when editing a Page record.

• Fixed an issue where unavailable rooms were displaying in the Room drop-down list on the event's Rooms & Groups subpage. Now, rooms only display in the list if they are within buildings at locations that are associated with the event's congregation and they do not have an existing reservation that conflicts with your event.

Messages & Notifications

• We updated the New Message tool. There's a description at the top so newer users know what they can do in this window. We moved the Insert button and tabs closer to the top so they're easier to locate and use. And the Send options are easier to use -- just click the button to see the menu and choose what to do.

• Fixed an issue in the New Message tool where the Send Button was not being enabled, even after filling in the necessary fields.

• Fixed an issue where the user did not receive an error message when they exceeded their email quota.

• Fixed an issue where, when a user exceeded their email quota, the Send button displayed instead of Send with Approval. The approval process was still triggered, but the user wasn't made aware that approval was needed.

• For Outlook Web users, we adjusted the formatting of Notification emails so you can see the option to view all records.

Navigation & Search

• In the navigation header breadcrumbs, the Back button now remembers your previously selected view and column filters.

• Each page now retains your global or column search option. For example, if you enable the column search, navigate away from the page, then return to that page, the column search is right where you left it.

• If you have your Locale set to English (United States), you'll notice a change to the way search works for dates. Now, date searches match the MM/DD/YYYY format you see in the grid. It's more intuitive to "search for what you see", which means you'll want to include the leading 0 when you search for dates in January through September. *Make sure you let your users know about this change!

User Interface

• Now, you can expand the Field List, Filter Clause, and Sort Clause code blocks on the SQL Layout tab for Views. The code is easier to see and edit!

• We improved the design of the New Task modal and the Transfer Selection modal so they're easier to use.

• When adding or editing a Bookmark, a message now displays if you forget to enter the URL.

• Ever wish you could revert your grid view back to the way it was? Now you can! Under the Actions menu, click "Reset Grid Defaults" to show the default sort and column order.

• As you select records in the grid, the Reports button now immediately displays the number of reports that are relevant to your selection.

• Fixed an issue where the Current/Unsaved Selection was available in the drop-down list when no records were selected. Now, that selection only displays if records are selected in the grid.

• Fixed an issue where the Clear Selection and Save Selection buttons were missing from the My Tasks, My Messages, and My Selections tabs on the Home page.

• Fixed an issue where links sent from MP Mobile did not display if you opened them on desktop.

User Accounts

• Fixed an issue where users were unable to reset their password if they had special characters in their name.

Schema

• You can limit the creation of sub-records to specific criteria based on the parent page. For example, if you're creating a Group Participant under the Life Groups page, you may only want Group Member and Leader Role types to be available for selection. Using Field Management, you can filter the drop-down list of the filtered subpage.

• To prepare for exciting features we're working on, we made some schema changes. No need to worry about these too much (we'll provide more info later), but you may notice a few new pages and fields.

  • In the Congregations table, we added a field for "Organization Code" that displays on congregation/parish records.
  • There's a new page called "Campaign Goals" under Stewardship/Contributions, where the campaign name, congregation/parish, and goal amount can be recorded.
  • We created a page for "Donation Codes" and a new field for "Donation Source" in Donation Distributions.
  • Also in Donation Distributions, there's a read-only field called "Vendor Pledge Code", which is populated by the giving vendor.
  • We created a "Pledge Frequency" table, a "Pledge Frequencies" page, and a read-only "Gift Frequency" field on Pledge records.
  • In Catholic instances, we added "Parish Credited" and "Parish Credited Unknown" to Pledges.

Sacraments

• Introducing sacrament tracking! We know that sacraments are integral to the Catholic faith, as well as other denominations. Now, there's a standard way to store sacramental information within MinistryPlatform.

• Check out the new sacrament pages! In the advanced navigation menu, you'll see a new section called Sacraments. You can view all sacramental records, or click one of the pages to see records for a specific sacrament. Catholics will see these labeled as Baptisms, Confirmations, Communions, Marriages, and Ordinations. You can enter information from your Death register, too. Other denominations will see Baptisms and Marriages. There are also pages in this section where you can track sponsors as well as relevant parishes/sacrament places and dioceses/districts.

• Note that this is the out-of-the-box experience. As always, you can customize the language your staff sees in the Platform. (Reach out to Support if you'd like help with this!) After this release, these pages are only visible to Admin users, who can give the appropriate users permission to view and manage sacramental records.

• This is just step one! We're still working on ways to expand this feature to include everything you need (like tools, reports, and certificates). Keep an eye out for future enhancements. Until then:

  • If you aren't already tracking sacraments in MinistryPlatform, you can either start entering information into your system now or wait until all enhancements have been released.
  • If you are tracking sacraments (perhaps Professional Services helped you with a custom solution), you may choose to wait until all enhancements are released before you start using this feature. In that case, you can keep everything hidden until you're ready to make the full-fledged sacrament tracking system available to your users.